More Morchella please...
Small plates and rather bigger pleasure in Clerkenwell
Early on a sunny Saturday evening I walk into Morchella, a newish restaurant in Clerkenwell, brought to us by the people behind the rather lovely Perilla in Stoke Newington. A grand Victorian bank, on a corner site, has been restored to its former glory having been colonised by a pretty basic pizzeria status in recent years. The high ceiling and big windows give the restaurant an attractively bright and airy feel and the exquisite new herringbone wooden floor must have cost a fortune. It’s not a cosy place, but I like it.
You can eat on either side of the bar: small plates in the area where the entrance is, more restauranty stuff just beyond. Small plates are my thing so I park myself at a high table and have a very pleasant chat with the knowledgeable and enthusiastic waiter – about what wine to have. Staff are all delightful and there is no sense that Morchella, despite being very much a restaurant of the moment and the subject of universally enthusiastic press reviews – is in any way “up itself”.
The name is the Italian for morel, the greatest of the Spring mushrooms and the food is very broadly Mediterranean. The wine selection is eclectic and includes whole sections dedicated to Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Greece in addition to more familiar regions. In style, the selection is divided into coastal, classic and funky.
After an excellent negroni I proceed to the salt cod churros (£9.50). That’s what it said on the menu but these two long extrusions, well browned and crisped in hot oil, came laid across a plate of romesco, pleasingly nutty, just sharp enough with a touch of fruity sweetness and smoke. This is my kind of dish.
Then on to one of the larger small plates, spaghetti vongole (£18). The pasta was just the right side of done, the clams sweet and juicy, the little broth salty and savoury, flecked with chilli and parsley. It was the sum of its parts, a perfectly good spaghetti vongole, just generous enough, but not in any way memorable. Not everything you eat has to be. It did its job.
But I needed more sustenance so I ordered a plate of arrotolata (£8). What’s that, you might well ask? So did I, so I did. It’s a form of meatier pancetta, essentially cured pork belly, thoroughly stratified with fat and layers of meat, deeply savoury, not over-salty, rich, nibbly and rather good. And an exceptionally generous portion at the price. All I wanted, to complete the experience, would have been some cornichons or something pickled. Maybe a mostarda?
I decide to finish with an apricot and lemon verbena pana cotta (£13) and ask for a dessert wine to go with it. A glass of rather lovely Sauternes arrives promptly but Morchella is now getting very busy and for quite some time of there’s no sign of the pana cotta. Just as I’m about the point out that the Sauternes is almost finished and I’m still dessertless, the pana cotta is placed in front of me while another waiter in the same instant replenishes my glass. The apricots could be a shade riper but it’s a very decent dish. And having been briefly mildly irritated I am now blissfully happy. After a bracing espresso I walk back to King’s Cross noting, as I go, places mentioned in Andrew O’Hagan’s Caledonian Road which, like Morchella, I strongly recommend.
Morchella
84-85 Roseberry Avenue
London EC1R 4Q
Phone: +44 20 7916 0492
www.morchelladining.co.uk